HELP! Primary monitor on a laptop....

The screen has gone dark on my laptop - too dark to read hardly, it only works when I press the microswitch that operates the standby mode when you close the lid, but this only works for about 10secs before going dark again.

So I purchased a separate monitor, but going into the display/settings menu - it will not allow me to use this monitor as the primary monitor, it will only allow me to use it as an extension of my desktop;

therefore I'm having to drag the boxes into the secondary monitor to view them properly.

Its a bit bloody annoying. :confused: :confused:

Have you consulted your Users Manual for the laptop? :)
Most of them use a key sequence (Fn + a function key) to switch between internal and external monitor.

Ahh, I'll try and find it, must be somewhere....:)

What brand of laptop, looking at mine (acer aspire) you would hit fn/f5.

I had the same thing happen a month or so ago. I then had the cunning plan to look at the likkle pictures on my keyboard and managed to turn the monitor back on! It was amazing, like.

fn/F6 on an acer aspire turns the lappy screen on and off, fn/F5 switches to a second monitor.

^
Thanks very much to you all, it was function F4 (compaq)and now it works fine.

happy days!!! :)

glad we could be of assistance ....